Best Served Cold
by Duana
Summary: After a brutal attack leaves Harry on deaths doorstep, he decided that if he was to keep living in a world that enjoyed abusing him so, he would need to start fighting back. Slash, warnings inside...
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Not mine *sniffles* all belong to the beautiful, talented, creative, intelligent, and truly blessed original author (is that enough compliments to avoid a law suit?), I just like to play with them and occasionally abuse them but they get their own back! ^_^

AN: Takes place in an AU world, Harry is in seventh year but Dumbledore isn't dead, sixth year passed with a normal attempt on his life by Voldemort, kidnapped, had his ear talked off, escaped – you know the drill. Voldemort doesn't have Horcruxes in this world.

Oh, I may have shamelessly taken a scene from a different fic (even worse I can't remember which one or if I even did, most of this fic came from a random daydream lol) and changed it my way to build a different story off. I'm really sorry and if it came from you, please let me know so I can at least acknowledge you ^_^ They do say that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery :-D

Warnings: Scenes of a sexual nature (just a tad graphic), death (no one we care about) and torture.

**Please note: this is a slash fanfic. Slash as in two boys, two boys enjoying each others bodies, sexually. As in, they are gay and are having GAY SEX! Well, not quite full sex, the bunny didn't jump that way but still... **Enjoy! I know I did! XD

**Best Served Cold by Duana**

Chapter One

His breath game in shallow gasps, it was all he was capable of, petrified as he was.

Petrified, in the dark, on his knees.

Pain exploded in his side as another blow landed on his side, he felt his cracked ribs break fully and the shallow breaths he had previously been able to manage became difficult, sparking new waves of agony with each one.

His mind was blank to all but the pain and the names he heard being whispered. He had recognised a few of the voices, they matched the names he heard but that felt like a long time ago now.

Probably was.

He didn't know how long he had been bound helpless, how long they had been beating and cursing him, how much longer he could actually survive this torture.

He knew it was very long though. He had been tortured and beaten enough times through his life to know how bad any damage was and how much he could stand. He had already passed the point he would normally have blacked out by.

He thought it was pissing them off that he was still conscious. Good. If that was all the retaliation he could manage, he would stay conscious until the very last moment. Not long now.

His vision was dancing grey and silver at the edges, even in the dark he could tell.

He chuckled lowly in his throat and heard their snarls of annoyance and outrage. He thought they wanted to see him weep and despair.

He wouldn't give them the satisfaction.

His muscles rapidly contracted and released as he felt the all too familiar sensation of the Cruciatus wash over him. He wasn't sure he could feel it properly any more, another sign that he didn't have much longer left. Or perhaps his body was just becoming immune to it. That would be nice. If he lived. He doubted he would though.

It didn't matter, his life was nothing but pain really. Even his great power caused nothing but pain. Those he loved either died for him, leaving him alone with nothing but guilt, or betrayed him, before they came sauntering back as though they had done nothing wrong and he was out of order by being upset with them and not instantly forgiving them.

Strange, if they had done nothing wrong, why did they need forgiveness?

But forgive them he would, because after all, you forgive the ones you love and love was his great power.

If love was so great, why did it hurt so much?

Apparently he didn't react enough, despite how little he was actually able to, so they changed tactics again and more blows rained across his body.

For a brain that had been in a nearly catatonic state only moments before, it was suddenly in overdrive, as though it realised on a subconscious level that it had only a few minutes of activity left before it stopped for good. Perhaps it did.

He could recognise who delivered most of the blows, it didn't matter that he couldn't see them. The light, almost ineffective ones were Pansy Parkinson. The heave ones that made him feel like his bone were shaking were Crabbe and Goyle. The fast jabs were Theodore Nott. The bitch slaps were Blaise Zabini. Tracey Davis was wearing metal tipped stiletto heels, which made both her foot steps and kicks quite distinctive. Daphne Greengrass seemed content to simply curse him on her turn, most often with a move powerful version of the stinging hex. Millicent Bulstrode was distinguished by the meaty fist that was attracted to his face.

He thought there were a few of the younger Slytherins too, but he got the impression that they didn't want to be there. They were only referred to as 'Oi. You!' and their spells were basically harmless, their punches or kicks tentative.

If on a slim chance he survive, he wouldn't hold this against them. They were only kids, kids scared by their older and fearsome Death Eater dorm mates.

The only real surprise about the group was that Draco Malfoy wasn't with them.

Speak of the devil and he shall appear, the thought washed sardonically through his mind as he heard the very boy he had just thought of walk through the door.

He smiled internally as he waited for the curse Malfoy would send. It seemed more fitting to die by the hand of his rival. He had been fighting with Malfoy since the first day of school. It made a nice circle that he should die by the enemy he had made on the first day he had truly felt alive.

It was better than going by the hand of someone as ignominious as Parkinson or Crabbe.

Malfoy seemed set and determined to keep surprising him though. Instead of happily joining in with the game of torture Potter, he started cursing the people in the room, verbally and magically.

Barely visible streaks of light shot through the room along with promises of Voldemort's retribution should he die. His hearing was starting to fail and he almost wanted to apologise to Malfoy. He wasn't going to live long enough to spare him Voldemort's wrath and Voldemort would hold Malfoy just as accountable as the others.

He could hear well enough though to hear many feet race from the room and Malfoy order what he assumed was one of the younger students to fetch Snape.

The spell holding him immobile was released and he groaned as he hit the floor, his cracked ribs jarring with the impact and piercing a lung by the feel of it.

A sickly grin washed over his face and he blinked as light was returned to his vision. Draco Malfoy was hovering over him nervously and wringing his wand.

"Sorry... Malfoy... Too late." Harry coughed and watched blood fly from his mouth, "Not... the youn... younger... kids... fault..."

Harry trailed off as he struggled to draw enough breath to speak.

Snape raced into the room, dressed in only a shirt and trousers. Harry's lips twitched in an attempt at a smile. He had never seen the dour spy look so unpresentable. A look of horror crossed his face as he quickly started pulling potions from a bag he carried with him.

Harry's eyes flickered back to Malfoy and was shocked to see a tear leak down his cheek.

"Don'... be... sad..." Harry gasped, he was seconds from blacking out, it was a peaceful feeling, knowing that it was finally over for him, he tried to lift a broken hand to brush away the tear but failed and turned his eyes away to Snape, "Bye... Sev..."

Harry's last two words slurred together and he was unable to finish the name Severus Snape, but he thought the spy had understood. His body shut down a few seconds before his brain, he couldn't see any more, couldn't hear or feel or taste or smell, all that was left to him for those endless seconds was one emotion.

Relief.

He didn't hurt.

That was the first realisation to cross his mind as he suddenly woke. It was a strange one for him to have, it wasn't what he would usually think as he woke up, but then there weren't many occasions, if any, when he had woken up without pain. It was his constant companion. But not today for some reason.

Why?

Oh, he died! That's why he didn't hurt. You can't hurt if your dead, but then he hadn't expected to be able to think either.

And if he was dead, why did it feel like he was lying in bed?

And why did wherever he was smell like the Hospital Wing?

And why was he breathing?

He slowly opened the eyes he realised he had and looked around without moving. Severus Snape was sat in the chair next to his bed, his head was pillowed on his arms, which in turn were resting on the bed next to Harry's hip.

He looked terrible, Harry decided. His hair, normally lank and somewhat greasy but always impeccably groomed, was tangled and wild and his robes were creased.

He was going to look worse soon though. He appeared to have saved his life, he hadn't wanted to be saved. He was supposed to have been able to rest.

The wave of annoyance passed as quickly as it had washed over him. He shouldn't have expected any less really, Snape had been protecting his hide for years, even if this was the first time he had been required to save it.

His memory of what had happened to land him in the Hospital Wing, this time, slowly cleared.

His ambush as he left the library late, alone. Being dragged through the castle under the cover of a disillusionment spell. His subsequent torture. His knowledge of each attacker.

His new found clarity also came back. His realisation about the truth of his friends and how little they truly cared for him. Surely they wouldn't have betrayed, disbelieved and distrusted him as often as they had if they really cared.

Why would they even keep pretending to be his friends if they cared so little? Were they even his friends to begin with? Or was it all just a lie?

Why would they lie though? He couldn't see any reason they would... unless they had been told to... but who would tell them such a thing? Dumbledore? That was more than likely. Kind of suspicious in itself that a pure blood and a muggleborn would choose to be his best friends, both sides of the wizarding world but both guaranteed to guide him firmly on the path of the Light.

It would fit in nicely with Dumbledore's plans to make him into the perfect little weapon and tool in the fight against Voldemort. If everyone he had ever cared for was on the side of the Light, then Harry would stay there too. It also gave him a reason to fight, to protect those he cared for. It would explain that whole great power of love line too, he really doubted that was the prophesied unknown power though.

No, he couldn't believe such a thing about his friends, not without proof.

But what if it were true? Perhaps his best course of action would be to claim amnesia, that would leave him free to extract the revenge he so badly wanted to carry out on the Slytherins. He wanted to hear them scream and beg for an unachievable mercy, feel their blood run through his fingers, watch as they took their last breath.

His previous annoyance with Snape for saving him, his doubts about his friends and mentor, turned into a cold hatred for his attackers.

He felt a sudden kinship with Voldemort, he didn't want to hurt the innocent but he did want to watch the world burn, the world that had offered him nothing but pain for the last seventeen years.

He flexed the fingers of his hands, he remembered that they had both been broken. He remembered Theodore Nott cackling madly as he broke each finger.

His hands moved perfectly, as though they had never sustained even so much as a paper cut.

He blinked as he realised he wasn't wearing his glassed but he could see clearly, better even. He guessed Madam Pomfrey had finally fixed his vision, he had asked her too on a few occasions but had always been refused due to the length of time it took to heal afterwards.

He guessed that meant he had been here for at least six weeks. He stifled a groan as he realised just how much homework he would have to catch up on.

The movement of his hands seemed to have been enough to disturb Snape because his eyes slowly blinked open and he sat up, running a hand across his face.

His eyes open almost comically wide as he looked at Harry's open eyes.

"Mr Potter! How do you feel?" Snape asked with clear concern in his voice.

Harry opened his mouth to reply but nothing apart from a hoarse croak emerged. Snape fetched a glass of water and held a straw to his lips. He took a few small sips knowing that he would probably be sick if he drank any faster.

It wasn't enough to slack his sudden raging thirst but it was enough to allow him to clear his throat and speak.

"Good, Professor." his voice was still scratchy and didn't quite sound as he thought it should but it was understandable.

Snape nodded once before turning and walking beyond sight behind his partially drawn curtains.

Harry took the opportunity to attempt to sit up. He found it easier than he had expected and pushed his pillows up so he could lay propped up.

His head spun a little at his sudden movement but calmed quickly and wasn't accompanied by any nausea.

"Mr Potter! How many times must you be told to lie still?" Madam Pomfrey chided even as she smiled at him, "How are you feeling?"

"Good, thank you. Not pain or nausea, just slightly light headed." Harry replied in his new scratchy voice.

"That's fine. The light headedness is just due to you needed a real meal. You have been on potions for some time." the medi-witch replied absent mindedly as she cast diagnostic spells over him.

He must have passed he tests as she merely tutted over him for a moment, tucking his blanket around him before disappearing for a few moments.

She reappeared with a dinner tray for him, a thin broth and a small bowl of plain custard were on it. Harry grimaced slightly but picked up a spoon without complaint.

He spoke as she opened her mouth and cut her off before she could begin. "I know, slowly."

He offered her a grin before taking his first small mouthful. He had heard the same orders enough times in the past to be able to guess what she was going to say.

She shot him a look of affectionate exasperation before leaving again with the promise to return in a few minutes.

Snape walked back in as she left and resumed his previous seat, legs crossed at the knee and watched silently as Harry ate.

"What do you remember?" he asked when Harry had finally finished his meal.

"Not much." Harry shrugged as his Slytherin side kicked in, "I was... attacked? Umm, there's a thought that someone didn't want to be there? I- I'm not sure. Was it Death Eaters? Where was I?"

"Yes. They were, unfortunately, able to gain access to you here." Snape replied handily glossing over just who it was. Harry let it lie, he knew Snape would expect him to either want revenge or be terrified to walk around the school.

"Guess I won't need to feel guilty next time I find my self duelling Death Eaters then. Has the Headmaster fixed whatever hole it was in the wards? Can they get back in?" Harry asked adding just a slight touch of apprehension to his questions.

"The school is secure." Snape replied as he believe him hook, line and sinker.

He didn't suppose it was that unexpected though that he was believed so easily. No one would ever believe that Gryffindor's golden boy would be able to lie so easily. But then, they didn't know he had been lying about one thing or another since he first started school, mainly just covering up how bad his life with the Dursley's was.

He hadn't told anyone at first out of shame, but when the Headmaster had all but acknowledged that he knew about it but forced him to return anyway, Harry had realised it was pointless to try asking for help.

There was no one willing to save him.

He was seventeen now though, his mother's protection charm had broken on his birthday and there was no force on heaven or earth that could make him go back. His plans had been made years ago about what he would do once he finished school.

He had brought a house under a false ID that he had arranged through Gringott's after Sirius died and his dream of a loving home with him. Wonderful people, goblins. They would do anything for enough money and Harry had more than enough, even without the Black Estates. He had arranged his Last Will and Testament at the same time.

Yet, Draco Malfoy had stood up to all his peers to save his life, even if he hadn't done it for Harry but to protect himself. And Severus Snape risked his life on a regular basis, spying to help Harry with the war and protecting him, even if he didn't do it for Harry but for the memory of Harry's mother, Lily.

It was still more any others had done. Ron and Hermione had often accompanied him but the only time they had faced any real danger was in the department of mysteries in his fifth year, he had been forced to beg for that help and even then it had been given grudgingly, with them showing little to no trust in him.

Ginny had gone with them but only in an attempt to get closer to Harry and to join in with the excitement of her big brothers life that she was so envious of.

Luna and Neville were the only two that truly believed in him that night, that trusted him.

Perhaps he needed a change in best friends no matter what his spying on Hermione and Ron discovered.

Harry nodded sleepily at Snape, the exertion of eating a meal enough to tire him out after his long convalescence.

"How long was I out, sir?" he asked quietly as his eyes fell shut.

"Nine weeks. You spent much of it in a healing coma, the damage was severe." Harry's eyes blinked open again, he knew it had been a while but...

"Bloody hell. That's a record, even for me." his eyes shut once more and he drifted off, not seeing the look of sympathy that crossed his stern professors face.

**tbc...**

**Please review! Even just 'I like it' makes us authors feel good...**


	2. Chapter 2

**Best Served Cold by Duana**

Chapter Two

It took a further four days for Harry to recover enough to be released by Madam Pomfrey.

Ron and Hermione visited as often as they could. Harry found the visits to be tiresome and annoying.

Hermione nagged at him about missed work and Ron cared for little beside Quidditch, they bickered constantly with each other and tried to drag him into their arguments. Harry couldn't have cared less about either and often found himself feigning sleep as he heard their approach.

It was Snape, Luna and Neville's visits Harry looked forward to.

Neville filled him in about what was happening in the war and newspapers, Snape filled in the blanks Neville didn't know about and told him about Voldemort's latest plots and lesser known attacks. Luna was his break from the real world, a much needed relief that he appreciated more with each visit. She happily nattered away about school gossip and unknown magical creatures she and her father were planning to find and prove the existence of.

Snape was a surprise with how, well, friendly wasn't a word he thought he would ever use in conjunction with his Potions Master but they were civil and refrained from insulting each other at every turn. He had a dark and slightly twisted sense of humour that shone through at odd moments and Harry found himself enjoying it.

Harry spent his time alone plotting his revenge. None of the students that had attacked him had been identified, Harry wasn't surprised. The only one who had seen any of them had been Malfoy, if he had grassed on them Voldemort would have killed him in a second.

His plans didn't only encompass the students that had attacked him though, he had plans for the adult Death Eaters too. He had realised as he lay thinking, that it was passed time to move from reactionary fighting, stopping planned attacks and acting only when the enemy did, to offensive.

It was time to take the fight to Voldemort and not just wait for him. Revenge was a dish best served cold, or so they said.

He escaped from the Hospital Wing in the early afternoon while classes were in progress and was able to make his way to Gryffindor tower unnoticed.

"I don't know the password." he sighed to the Fat Lady and prepared to trek to McGonagall's office and wait there to ask her but was stopped when the portrait swung open with a blown kiss from it's occupant and a whispered word that he realised was the current password.

He smiled his thanks and quickly slipped through. He changed in his bedroom from the hospital pyjamas he had been wearing and into his usual attire. Black jeans, black boots, black t-shirt and specialised black duelling robes that had been modified slightly. They had an open front so as not to restrict movement, unlike most others that were floor length to offer more protection and were lined with semi-precious gems he could store magic in, which when activated powered several strong shields on the cloak and would repel most curses and hexes. The only colour he ever wore any more was the house emblem on his cloak, his red and gold tie and his white school shirt.

He didn't particularly care, clothes had never been a consideration in his life. At least these fit him, unlike Dudley's cast off's that had been ten sizes too big.

He walked out of the castle without a destination in mind, just the urge to get outside in the fresh air.

He walked to the lake and stopped for a moment to catch his breath, he still wasn't quite as fit as he had been and he cursed his lack of stamina. It only took a moment to gather himself but he stood looking across the water for a short while and watched lazy tentacles wave and disappear.

His feet carried him around the edge of the lake and he followed where they took him. He didn't need to return until dinner and that was a few hours away yet.

His steps soon led to the edge of the forest and the path he had walked on several occasions with Remus, when he had been teaching. He followed the track, listening carefully to the noises around him. He didn't want to get taken by surprise by one of the various dangerous creatures.

He spotted the old gnarled oak tree he had often sat beneath with Remus and climbed a few branches on a whim. He settled back against the trunk, moving a bowtruckle gently out of the way, and watched the water again as he listened to a blackbird singing nearby.

He slipped into an almost trance as he watched the sun sink towards the horizon and small waves lap at the shore. The blackbird flew away to be replaced by finches and what he thought was a blue-jay.

A kingfisher dived through the water a few times and eventually emerged victorious with a small fish.

He was snapped out of his daze as he heard the sound of hooves and snapping twigs.

"Scorpio stalks Orion as Mars shines brightly, Harry Potter." a centaur said as he stepped in view.

"Scorpio was the scorpion sent to kill Orion after he declared his intent to kill every animal he came across, right?" Harry asked as he slid down a few branches to rest at the same level as the centaur.

"Gaia is said to protect her own." the centaur replied and Harry grinned as he actually understood a conversation with a centaur for a change.

"What's your name? If you don't mind me asking."

"Sagitta. You should not venture into the forest, Harry Potter. The moon has shone her worry for you enough of late." Harry looked at the centaur properly for the first time and noticed his beautiful roan, he didn't mention it though as he was worried about giving offence. So magical species took offence at the strangest things.

"Yeah, it was touch and go for a while. I thought I had reached my time. I won't go further though, I don't actually have a death wish." Harry smiled lopsidedly.

"Your star will not grace the sky for many moon cycles yet." Sagitta said quietly as he walked away.

Harry scratched his head for a moment and wondered if he had understood the conversation because he knew what the centaur was talking about or because he had been less vague than Firenze so many years ago.

He left the thought alone though and decided to head sack up to the castle. Dinner would be starting soon.

He arrived a couple of minutes late due to needing to stop twice to regain his breath and cursed as he realised he would be centre of attention as he walked in. he considered just going to the kitchen but discarded the idea. He wouldn't let people push him around any more.

He squared his shoulders, pushed the door open and calmly walked in, head held high.

Silence spread in a wave from around him as the students caught sight of him. Whispers started behind his back as he passed but Harry ignored it all. He let his eyes travel over each house table, his expression unchanging as they travelled over the Slytherins before sliding away as he took his seat at the Gryffindor table between Ron and Neville.

Cheers broke out from his table as he sat and Harry allowed a smile to cross his face and he called be hellos to everyone who called to him.

Dinner turned out to be enjoyable, his doubts about Ron and Hermione's friendship pushed aside for now. His eyes caught Draco Malfoy's across the room and Harry raised an eyebrow at him while no one was looking.

The look of surprise that crossed Malfoy's face was quickly hidden but Harry had seen it and he grinned as he returned his attention to his meal.

He could hear sniggering from the Slytherin table and Pansy Parkinson's screechy voice rose clearly above the general noise in the hall.

"They say it was a miracle he lived, I say it was a shame!" laughter followed her words, even as he watched Draco elbow her from the corner of his eye. He whispered fiercely to her and his table mates for a moment and slowly all their grins fell from their faces.

Harry would have loved to be a fly on their table at that moment, he was fairly sure Draco had just mention Voldemort, and Harry would guess his wrath at the attack, to them. He could make an educated guess that Voldemort hadn't been pleased to learn of his near death, there were standing orders that no one was to kill him after all.

Voldemort didn't take disobedience well, especially when it was in connection to Harry.

He hid his smirk and finished his meal before leaving the room with Ron, Hermione and Neville. He paused by the Ravenclaw table as he passed and pressed a kissed to Luna's cheek. She smiled at him in her dreamy fashion and warned him about wrackspurts that were loitering in the Entrance Hall.

Harry walked out happily, it was going to be fun getting his revenge. He wouldn't be able to start for a few weeks but that was okay, he could be patient.

Three weeks passed quickly for Harry. He had spent the time slowly pulling away from Ron and Hermione after carefully watching the Marauders whenever they weren't with him.

It didn't take long to for him to realise they were reporting on him to Dumbledore on an almost daily basis. The clincher though, had been as he sat in the dark common room late on night.

He had heard the quiet tread of feet coming down the stairs and had silently disillusioned himself, he had just wanted to be alone for a while. He sat and listened to a whispered conversation between his once best friends and felt the wash of betrayal engulf him like a tidal wave.

He had guessed at it but hadn't really believed, until he heard them talking about him, his strangely distant behaviour, Dumbledore's orders to stay close to him and how they had been promised more money for all the hassle he was currently putting them through.

By a miracle, he had managed to hold himself silent and refrained from cursing them both into dust. He had really wanted to curse them though, or even just vent some of his fury. Instead he waited for them to leave, then waited long enough for them to fall asleep.

He had crept into the girls dormitory, after hissing at the stairs that he was gay and in no way interested in the girls, and stood silently looking down on Hermione. A few quick spells later and he slipped back out.

Ron had received similar treatment before he happily slid back into bed and fell into a dream filled sleep, blood spilling around him behind his eyes, as his victims screamed and begged forgiveness.

The next day Harry had been hard pressed to hide his mirth. Ron had awoken with green hair and spent the next week thinking he was constantly being followed by spiders. Hermione had found herself unable to understand anything she saw written down and her hair flashed randomly between puce and fuchsia.

He had also spent the time quietly finding out everything he could about both the Slytherins and the locations of the known Death Eaters.

It hadn't taken him long to realise he couldn't just murder the Slytherins in their beds. They would all need to die in a series of accidents.

Today was Theodore Nott. Potions was a wonderfully dangerous lesson, made even better by the fact that they were working with a very volatile potion.

Even better was the fact that Snape had pared them off, so he was working with Malfoy on the Slytherin side of the room.

Malfoy as usual had left him with preparing the ingredients. It was easy work and required little to no thought, so he was able to watch Nott as he stirred his potion while his partner worked on the other side of the bench preparing.

It was the work of a moment to disillusion a few lacewing flies and float them into his cauldron. The reaction was better than Harry had hoped for, not only did the cauldron explode but the potion turned acidic as it did.

Nott screamed as he was blown halfway across the room, covered in the potion from head to toe, which sizzled as it burnt into his skin and melted his eyeballs.

The class ran screaming from the room as Nott gurgled a dying scream of his own. Harry could see his tongue melting as his mouth opened, his fingers already burned enough to show the bone.

The smell was horrendous. Snape raced across the room, shooting healing spells as he did. None of them made a difference as Harry plastered a panicked look on his face and fluttered around.

Harry swallowed a sigh of satisfaction as Nott rattled a final breath and died.

"S-sir, is he- dead?" Harry asked in a shaky voice and mentally patted himself on the back in congratulations for his amazing acting skills.

Snape just stared at him in bewilderment for a moment, as though unable to grasp what had just happened.

Guilt consumed Harry for a moment, he hadn't really wanted to upset Snape. He just hadn't thought about how it would affect the man.

He pulled his professor away from the still melting corpse and then sent his Patronus running off to Dumbledore.

"Accio Snape's alcohol!" he called quickly, caught a bottle the flew out of the office before transfiguring a glass from an empty vial and filled it half way.

He handed Snape the filled glass and helped him lift it to his lips.

"Accio Calming Draft!" he called on a second thought when he received no response from Snape and replaced the glass with the potion.

It took a moment to get Snape to drink the potion but managed just as Dumbledore walked through the door.

Harry lay back in bed that night with a smile. Not only had he managed to get rid of one of the main ring leaders from his attack, but he had done it without causing any suspicion to fall on himself.

He hadn't realised it was so easy to kill.

Classes had been cancelled for the rest of the week and Harry fell asleep with the nice thought that he would be able to sleep as long as he liked the next day. Life was good.

A month later, most of the school was reeling with shock. Four more Slytherins had died in accidents, approximately one each week.

Daphne Greengrass had drowned in the lake. She had been out after curfew for some unexplainable reason (Imperio) and fallen in from the edge of a slight cliff. It was most unfortunate that she had been unable to swim and that the Giant Squid had not saved her for some reason (a tasty treat he had been enjoying on the other side had delayed him).

Pansy Parkinson had cast the fiendfyre curse by mistake (a error in her charms book, which had then disappeared without notice) and had been consumed by the cursed fire before Professor Flitwick had been able to cast the counter-curse. Thankfully no one else had been harmed though.

A bludger had knocked Crabbe from his brood during Quidditch practice. Sadly he had landed in such away that his neck snapped and killed him instantly (a simple first year spell used to move falling objects had worked nicely).

Goyle had managed to poison himself (a hex that caused a poking sensation had hit his ribs causing him to drop a bread roll in a puddle, he had brushed it off and eaten it anyway, Harry had then banished the puddle of poison) and unknowingly took himself to bed where he died in his sleep.

That left only three more before he moved onto the adult Death Eaters.

Harry left the last three Slytherins alone for a few months.

He watched as they edgily eyed everyone who walked near them, especially when Harry did. It didn't take a genius for them to realise that the students dying were the ones who had attacked Harry. There wasn't much they could do though, unless they wanted to give themselves up and be sent to Azkaban at best, Kissed at worst.

They had no way of proving it was Harry either, not a single one of the deaths could be linked to him. As far as everyone knew, the only death Harry had even witnessed was Nott's and for Parkinson's he had been in a different class room on the other side of the school with plenty of witnesses.

No one knew how Goyle had been poisoned but Harry couldn't be blamed, he was asleep in bed when he died, the same with Greengrass. For Crabbe he had been alone, which wasn't unusual for him any more, but no one had been able to see him under the cover of a disillusionment spell.

He had stopped using the cloak, apart from during his occasional night time walks. He had worked out some time ago that Dumbledore had a tracking spell on it, which was how he could see through it.

Tracy Davis was due to die during dinner. Tragically the bench was due to break under the seat she always used and a large splinter of wood was going to pierce her brain as she fell.

It really was quite awful how the Slytherins were dropping like flies.

A month after that Blaise Zabini and Millicent Bulstrode snuck away from lesson to copulate in the Forbidden Forest (Imperio, it got easier each time you used it, Harry found) and during their... activities managed to roll through several poisonous plants. The mixed reaction left them unable to breath and they both suffocated and were found several hours later, blue, still intimately joined and lying in the middle of the plants that killed them.

**tbc...**

**Please be kind and review... It makes the muse happy and a happy muse means more frequent updates...**


	3. Chapter 3

**Best Served Cold by Duana**

Chapter Three

"Am I next?" Harry was sure that was supposed to have sounding less terrified but he could understand Malfoy's fear.

"Next for what?" Harry asked back in his best innocent and clueless voice.

"You know exactly what Potter."

Harry cocked his head to the side in a confused manner and sat on the edge of a desk. He had just been pulled into an empty classroom by a scared and haggard looking Draco Malfoy.

"The list. The revenge list." Malfoy looked desperately tired and on edge. Harry was almost worried about him. He had saved his life, for whatever reason, and now looked like he was living in fear of his own. "The rest are gone, so am I next?"

"Revenge? The only revenge I want is on the Death Eaters that attacked me and Voldemort himself. Why would you think I wanted it on you?" Harry blinked innocently.

"Oh, I don't know... all the years of fighting and name calling and... EVERYTHING! I know it's you! It has to be! No one else knows except Him! Just... please, if I'm next... I want to at least know." Malfoy sounded resigned to being the next one killed, it tugged at Harry's heart strings for a second.

He stepped towards Malfoy and frowned when the other boy flinched back a little. He didn't actually like seeing people flinch away from him he realised. It was one thing when it was people he actually wanted to see dead... but to see Malfoy, who had always stood up to him, fought with him, flinch back...

He wrapped his arms around him and held him gently for a moment. He was surprised at how good Malfoy felt in his arms. He had admired him before, sure, who hadn't? There was no denying that Malfoy was attractive, he had just never actually considered even touching him before.

Malfoy seemed to melt in his arms and Harry's eyes widened as he felt the thin shoulder shake with silent tears. He tightened his grip as his rival cried into his chest, the only noise to escape him, his shallow gasps.

A surge of protectiveness washed over him, it shocked him with it's intensity and he tilted Malfoy's chin up towards his face once he felt the shaking stop.

"I can't claim to know what list you're on about, but I'm sure that if I had one... your name wouldn't be on it." Harry whispered as he brushed a few stray tears away with the back of his knuckles. He pressed a quick, light kiss to Malfoy's lips with a small smile and walked out of the room.

He walked quickly out of the castle and down to the old oak tree by the lake. He was confused by the feeling that had swamped him only a short time ago. It was almost as confusing as finding Draco Malfoy crying in his arms. Almost as confusing as the urge that had led to him kissing Draco Malfoy.

He wasn't confused by wanting to kiss a guy. He had worked that one out a few years ago. A kiss he could only describe as 'wet' and a few flings with a couple of boys, had firmly led him to believe he was gay. No kissing boys was the easy bit.

It was the fact it was _Malfoy _he had kissed that caused the problem. He had held _Malfoy_. He wanted to protect _Malfoy_. It was utterly confusing.

Hours later, he pushed himself out of the tree and headed back to the castle for dinner. He had plans for that night and he needed to get moving.

**Yaxley and Mulciber Dead in Beds!**

Harry smirked at the newspaper as he read over the article. Two pure blood elitists had been found dead in their homes, left arms bared on display and clearly showing the Dark Mark with a lightening bolt branded over the top of it.. So far Auror's had been unable to discover the cause of death.

Harry smirked again as he re-read the article. Wizards were very easy to confuse when you used muggle methods. Like an empty needle pushing air into a vein, while your victim lay unconscious under a Stupefy.

You would think that with the number of muggleborns there were, more of them would have kept in touch with muggle technology. Truth was, most only got as much as a primary school education before they left the muggle world behind completely.

It was promising to make Harry's new job easier though.

He had slipped out the night before, using the second entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, it opened up into the passage that led from the school to Honeydukes.

It was a longer, colder route but no one besides himself, and possibly Voldemort who wasn't going to grass on him, knew about it. It also had the added bonus of not registering his crossing the wards.

He had easily apparated to the two houses he had learnt the address of. The wards were only a minor annoyance, his advanced training Dumbledore had arranged was more than enough to get him through without alerting the holder to his presence.

You would have thought Death Eaters would have had better wards, but like all other pure bloods, they expected their placements in the Wizengamot or Ministry to protect them, that or their oh so pure blood, so what need had they for impenetrable wards? The Malfoy's were one of the few exceptions, their wards could have rivalled Hogwarts.

Not that Harry was sure they were all that impressive any more. How many Death Eaters had snuck into the school? And possessed professors and Dark artefacts?

He stunned the single male residents and then injected them. He had been halfway out the front door of the first house before he thought to turn back and uncover his Mark.

He still had the addresses of five more Death Eaters and he planned to take care of them over the course of the next two weeks. He wasn't too sure how to find the rest but he wasn't worried. He would come up with something.

Harry had spent the last week arguing with himself.

It had been three weeks since his first attack on the adult Death Eaters and one week since he hit the last address he had. All of them had gone off smoothly and to plan.

Draco Malfoy had been avoiding him as much as possible but Harry didn't mind too much. It left him with more time to think over his latest idiocy he called a plan and less time to think about how much he wanted to kiss him again.

He was still arguing with himself as he slipped out of the school and apparated to the Riddle Manor in Little Hangleton.

He stood covered by a disillusionment charm, shrouded in shadows and just watched the constant flow of people in and out for a short while.

There weren't dozens of people coming and going but there were far more than there should have been for that time of night unless they were holding a party. The uniform black robes didn't look like party robes though. You would have thought that the Auror's or the Order would have spotted something like this. Didn't they even check out the homes of the known Death Eaters?

"Wormtail! I'll see your Master now." Harry called as he removed the charm he was hiding under and stepped out of the shadows, a smirk on his face and a threat in his voice.

"H-Harry! M-My d-dear boy! W-what a-are-"

"Shut up, you disgusting little cretin. I want to see your Master, not listen to you babble at me all night." Harry sniffed as disdainfully as he could manage.

Arrogance was going to be his friend that night. He knew he was literally about to walk into the snake pit and they would pounce on any sign of weakness. He needed them all to think he was changing allegiance, it wasn't exactly a lie but nor was it true in the way he wanted them to think.

He would never join Voldemort, there was simply too much bad blood, he just didn't much like Dumbledore either. He was on his own side.

"Mr Potter." an aristocratic drawl made Harry smirk again as he turned to address it's owner.

"Mr Malfoy. Fancy meeting you here, I wasn't aware you were free once more. Perhaps you could direct me to your Master? Wormtail seems to be having trouble string sentences together."

"Certainly. This way. My Lord will be most surprised to see you." Lucius said with a raised eyebrow that Draco had quite obviously emulated.

"I'm sure he will. I forgot to make an appointment." Harry chuckled, this was turning out to be more fun than he had expected.

Strangely his fear of meeting Voldemort had vanished, only common sense was telling him to run away. Death just didn't scare him any more it seemed. How could it when he knew how peaceful it felt? Didn't mean he actively wanted to die though, hence his screaming common sense.

"My Lord, a visitor for you." Lucius drawled as he fell to his knees.

Harry remained standing, he refused to crawl. Voldemort didn't seem to take offence though.

"Harry Potter. How unexpected. Have you come to die or join me? I have been offering for long enough now." Voldemort was talking in an almost friendly tone of voice.

Harry slowly reached beneath his cloak and pulled out a pain relieving potion, showing it to Voldemort before he drank it.

"Sorry, you give me a terrible headache." Harry grinned and looked around for a chair to sit it. Voldemort seemed to understand and summoned one with a lazy flick of his wand. "Thank you," said Harry as he sat down, "I was rather thinking of joining, I don't want that horrible tattoo though."

Voldemort narrowed his eyes at him for a moment and Harry felt the brush of Legilimency against his mind. He strengthened his Occlumency shields and projected the feeling of truth, before he smirked.

"You would refuse my Mark?" Voldemort seemed more amused than insulted, amused that he had casually walked in and started dictating his terms.

"Hell yeah, I don't want to be one of your little Death Eaters. I won't bow and crawl, I won't suffer your Crucios, but I do want to play with you." Harry grinned at his double meaning. He would happily play war games and torture games with Voldemort, even as he played with his head and convinced him he was evil now.

"Why would you, the Golden Boy of the Light, ever turn to me?" Voldemort asked with the same amusement still playing around his red eyes.

"Lets just say that... some truths about our beloved headmaster and my dearest friends recently came to light." Harry chuckled darkly, "I'm not very happy with them right now."

"The old man will insist on meddling." Voldemort summoned two glasses of a rich amber coloured liquid and offered one to Harry.

"I also wanted the chance to kill Wormtail." Harry grinned as he muttered a few detection charms over his drink before taking a sip, "Betrayal is a touchy subject at the moment."

"Wormtail...ah, your parents." Voldemort looked at him silently for a long moment, assessing him, "You would come to me just for him?"

"I'm here." Harry replied while avoiding the question slightly, he knew Voldemort would be suspicious if he seemed to honest.

"Such bravery should be rewarded, Lord Voldemort is generous." Voldemort said in his usual condescending tone as he rang a little bell. "All yours."

Harry watched as Wormtail scurried in, he shot a questioning look at Voldemort and received a nod in return.

He looked at the rat like man that had fallen to his knees a few steps away from his Lord and let all the feelings of hatred he had been harbouring for his parents betrayer wash over him.

A flick of his wand and a few muttered words later, Harry walked forwards and looked down on the pathetic excuse of a man as he whimpered, writhed and eventually screamed.

Harry guessed it hurt to have your blood slowly heat in your veins until it boiled. This wasn't the original version of the curse though, it was a personally modified version, it would take more than an hour for him to die under this one.

"Interesting. I hadn't expected you to be able to wield the Dark so easily, nor have I seen anyone last so long from this curse." Voldemort said casually, as though speaking of the weather.

"It's modified." Harry shrugged, copying Voldemort's lead and acting as casually as possible.

Wormtail slumped as the curse was lifted, his voice instantly begging and pleading.

The next one made him scream instantly, thousands of little one inch long cuts opening up all over his body. Too shallow to kill but more than enough to hurt.

Harry enjoyed his screams for a few minutes before speaking again.

"Bored now." a blasting hex to the back of Wormtail's head splattered his brain and fragments of skull around the room.

Harry grinned as blood dripped off his face, it was like all his dreams come true.

"Huh, didn't expect that to be quite so messy." he said calmly as he wiped off his glasses.

"Really?" Harry glanced up at the sarcasm, "What did you expect then?"

"Oh, a mess, just not this good." Harry laughed and calmly sat down on the floor to draw pictures in the blood. He pulled another pain reliever from his pocket and swallowed it with a grimace.

"Does my presence really cause you so much pain?" Voldemort asked with curiosity.

"Yeah, feels like my head is going to split open, and that's after taking the potion." Harry grinned as he continued drawing in the blood.

He rang the bell again and an anonymous Death Eater walked in and almost fell over in shock when he saw Harry sat in a pool of blood, playing with it and grinning like he was insane.

"Get Severus Snape." Voldemort barked and Harry laughed when the Death Eater nearly fell over in his hurry to get out of the room. "Where did you learn such spells?"

"A book from the Black Library." Harry grinned, he had only learnt them at the time on the premise of know your enemy and for the counter curses. He hadn't expected to ever use them.

Voldemort just watched him silently for a long moment as they waited.

Snape blanched as he walked through the door but to his credit, managed to ignore the scene enough to gingerly walk around the pool of blood, twitching his robes aside so they didn't drag through it.

"My Lord." he murmured as he knelt and kissed his Lord's hem.

"Harry suffers from my presence. You will find a cure." Voldemort ordered with what could only be described as a fond look at the boy playing with the blood of his dead servant.

"Of course, My Lord." Snape replied calmly and stood at the flick of fingers that was his cue for dismissal.

"I better tag along back to the castle." Harry said as he stood and cast a few cleaning charms over himself to remove the blood.

"Very well, I will have Severus inform you should I have need of you." Voldemort said as he snapped his fingers for a house elf.

Harry threw a wave over his shoulder and happily skipped out the room behind his professor.

"Meet you at the gates." Harry said before he apparated away.

He arrived a moment before Snape and leant against the gates as he waited.

Snape cast him a long assessing look as he arrived.

"Should I fear you revealing me?" the spy eventually asked in a blank voice.

"Why would I do that?" Harry asked with a tilt of his head.

"Perhaps because I just saw you sitting with The Dark Lord, playing with Blood?" Snape replied with his best 'talking to dunderheads' tone.

"Means to an end." Harry grinned, "You're safe from me."

Harry couldn't say that he got on any better with the dour man but there was a level of respect he held for the man. Snape had spent endless hours tutoring him on duelling and Occlumency after his disastrous fifth year and Harry's demand for training.

Dumbledore had not wanted to but Snape had convinced him and the insults they still normally shared were without the previous amount of venom and hatred, even if the words were still the same.

"Would you like to tell me just what end, exactly, are you aiming for?" it was more of a demand than a question but Harry answered anyway.

"His death, that and his Death Eater's. We've been playing war for too long. If we leave it much longer, there won't be a wizarding world left to save." it was only half the truth but it was still true, the other half of course, was revenge. Not just for his attack but for all the ones before it, for all the ones on the people he cared for and for the innocents that had been caught up between the Light and Dark.

"If only Albus would see it that way." Snape muttered to himself more than to Harry.

Harry shot him a look of surprise but it was ignored. Only half an hour ago, Snape would never have said such a thing to him.

"We had better return to the school." Snape said suddenly before stalking away.

Harry chuckled and followed with a shake of his head. He didn't think he would ever understand his potions professor.

**tbc...**

**Please be nice and review... I'll be just as happy with 'Love it' as a 500 word essay...**


	4. Chapter 4

**Best Served Cold by Duana**

Chapter Four

It was four days until he received word from Voldemort. Snape had slipped a folded piece of parchment onto his desk as he checked Harry's potion.

_He will see you _was all it had said.

Harry had waited a few minutes before looking over and nodding his head once with a slightly raised eyebrow in question 'are you going?', the returned nod answered him 'yes'.

They apparated out together that night and walked through Voldemort's manor with a comfortable silence.

Comfortable for him at any rate, Snape looked a little tense. Harry guessed he still wasn't positive that he wasn't going to be revealed. There wasn't much he could do to alleviate that worry though.

Snape bowed as he walked in and Harry grabbed a chair to drag over.

"Hello!" he said merrily as he sat down.

He chuckled as the other Death Eaters all gapped at him and one raised his wand with a "How dare you speak-" that was all he managed before he found himself writhing under Voldemort's own Crucio.

"You will address Lord Potter with respect." he said calmly as he lifted the spell.

Harry didn't even bother hiding his laugh. Voldemort made him sound like some cheesy villain from a comic book. _The Dark Lord Potter had taken control of Gotham City..._

It was really quite amusing to have Voldemort jumping to his defence as well. Oh, the irony!

He sat and listened to the meeting with curiosity, sipping at pain relievers every few minutes. He wasn't sure why he had been asked to attend but it was enlightening none the less.

Voldemort's meetings were far more orderly than he had expected. There was more planning involved than Harry had ever seen in an Order meeting too.

They all gave reports on whatever they were working on, proudly when they were successful, cowering with failure and offering suggestions after each one that hadn't worked as planned.

He had never seen this side to the meetings through his visions, just the punishments that were given.

There was a surprisingly low number of punishments and most of those were only a short burst of Crucio. The one big punishment was given for a series of failures and was offered to Harry.

Harry grinned as he raised his wand.

A simple jelly-legs jinx sent the man crashing to the floor while Harry giggled, he followed it with other simple first and second years hexes while the man glowered at him with the humiliation.

A Rictumsempra left him unable to breathe while he suffered from legs that would stop moving under a Tarantallegra.

He ended the spells with a pout at Voldemort's gesture and blinked with shock when Voldemort chuckled at his antics.

"You're turning out to be quite amusing." Voldemort said as he dismissed his Death Eaters.

"Yeah, this Death Eater stuff is more fun than I expected." Harry said back. "Is there any reason you wanted me here?"

"You needed introducing to my followers."

"Well, if that's all, I better run back before I'm noticed missing." said with a mock salute before walking out at Voldemort's gesture.

"I was unaware The Dark Lord still knew how to laugh." Snape said as Harry apparated in beside the gates of the castle.

"He is but a man, Severus." Harry replied with his best Dumbledore impression, causing Snape to stifle a laugh of his own.

"You did it on purpose?" he asked with doubt.

"I'm not an idiot. I know full well that the only reason he hasn't killed me is that I'm currently an enigma to him. I proved last time that I could be evil and Dark when I killed Wormtail, today I proved I was also amusing. I should have brought myself at least two months before he grows bored of me. More than enough time." Harry shrugged.

"Time for what?" Snape asked like he couldn't believe Harry actually had a plan.

Harry couldn't blame him, planning had never been his strong point in the past.

"To wipe him and his Death Eaters out."

"Two months?" Harry couldn't quite work out what the tone in Snape's voice meant.

"Yeah, why? Is that too soon?" Harry blinked as Snape walked away, mumbling about idiocy and unbelievability, before he apparated beck into Hogsmeade and took the Honeydukes entrance to the castle. He didn't want Dumbledore wondering why two people were returning to the castle for the second time, he didn't even know how Snape had explained it the first time.

Draco Malfoy becoming quite interesting to Harry.

His reaction to Harry was vastly amusing. He hadn't insulted him once since their confrontation in the empty class room and went out of his way to avoid him.

Ron and Hermione still hadn't got the message that he wasn't interested in their friendship any longer and insisted on following him around between lessons.

Harry had got a kick out of a meeting between the blond Slytherin and Ron before a potions class.

Ron had started the argument when Malfoy hadn't even looked their way, calling him a coward that had finally learnt his place now that his little groupies had died, insulting his mother and father and anything else he could think of.

Growing bored of being ignored he had pulled his wand and cursed the Slytherin's turned back.

Harry had jumped in, casting the counter curse and punched Ron solidly in the mouth.

"Some kind of Gryffindor you are, attacking a fellow student without provocation and behind their back! You're an embarrassment to our house!" Harry had snarled as he helped Malfoy back to his feet and calmly led the other boy into the classroom, leaving a spluttering Hermione and shell-shocked Ron behind.

"Ten points from Gryffindor Weasley and detention on Friday night." Snape had smirked, before checking over Malfoy and ignoring Harry except to offer him a slight twitch of his lips that Harry took as a smile.

Harry casually took his assigned seat and just smiled at the confused look the only Slytherin in the room was shooting at him.

He found himself dragged into an empty room after class, again by Malfoy.

"What in the name of Merlin, was that?" Malfoy demanded in a tone that was almost his old drawl but just slightly missing it's mark for his old arrogance.

"What was what... Draco?" Harry smirked back.

"Oh, I don't know... the whole punching your best mate to protect the poor little Slytherin?" Malfoy responded satirically, "And since when did you call _me_ Draco?"

Harry slowly walked towards the Slytherin in question and his expression gentled sightly when he quickly stepped backwards, the wall hitting his back.

He mercilessly continued forward until he was standing nearly chest to chest with the other boy. He felt a small thrill of shock which was quickly overwhelmed by that feeling of protectiveness, as he realised he was an inch taller than the other now.

"Since now and I guess you could call it returning a favour."

"A-and the kiss?" Draco breathed as he felt Harry trail a finger down his cheek.

"Spur of the moment." Harry grinned lightly feeling strangely confident. He had never been so forward about anything in his life.

"And this?" Draco's eyes were fluttering shut and Harry simply couldn't help himself.

He leant in and pressed his lips to Malfoy's. When he didn't receive a negative response he ran his tongue across the opening and slipped his tongue inside as Malfoy opened his lips.

Malfoy's hands circled his neck and ran through his hair as Harry pulled their hips together. The blond moaned slightly as his prick hardened and rubbed against Harry's. The moan only encouraged Harry more and he thrust against the slightly shorter boy, the friction through his trousers driving his mind into a blissful haze of lust.

His hands reached around Malfoy and lifted him so he could wrap his legs around Harry's waist, the new angle causing groans from both of them. Their kisses contained more teeth as their attention was more taken by the movement of their hips but neither complained. Malfoy trembled in his arms and came only a moment later, Harry released his control that he had been holding so carefully and allowed himself to cum after a few more thrusts.

Harry panted against Malfoy's throat and placed sucking kisses along it's length as he regained his breath.

Malfoy's legs slowly unwound from around his waist and Harry watched as a blush crept over his cheeks.

"Okay?" Harry asked as he leant in to kiss Malfoy's mouth and stifled the urge to rut against him again, or more as he hardened once more.

"Of course, Potter." Malfoy sneered lightly, the effect damped by with still racing heart, that Harry could feel against his own chest, and the blush that stained his cheeks in the prettiest way.

Harry frowned slightly at the tone, not because it was sneering but... there was something else in it... The thought struck him like proverbial lightening, _was Malfoy a virgin? _Surely not, there were dozens of rumours around the school about Malfoy, most of them with girls but a few with boys.

Now Harry was wondering how many were true.

He waved cleaning spells over them both and kissed Malfoy before stepping back.

"Makes two of us then." Harry leered back playfully, trying to dispel the sudden tension that sprang up. "We should have stopped fighting and started shagging years ago."

"I would hardly call that 'shagging', Potter." Harry smiled at the condescension in his now ex-rival's tone.

"I don't know. You got off, I got off. Not much difference from where I'm standing." Harry grinned easily.

"Then perhaps you should take a step back. Surely your not so inexperienced as to not be able to tell the difference."

"Just because we don't all brag about our conquests, Draco, doesn't mean nothing has happened. What number do the rumours have you on now? Mid twenties? You'll get the wrong kind of reputation if you're not careful." Harry said as he watched that delightful blush deepen and spread.

"I- That is- I mean-" Malfoy stammered for a moment as he tried to find a comeback.

"I know, don't worry. I won't tell anyone their all false." Harry's smiled changed from playful smirk to reassurance.

"I have no idea what you mean. Why would you even say something like that?" Malfoy's bashful blush turned into a scared blanch in less than a second.

"It's okay, Draco. I don't have the slightest problem with it. Happy to help, if you're interested." Harry smiled as he leered again and darted forwards.

He pressed the blond back against the wall and kissed his hard, not letting the still pale boy escape until he reciprocated.

"You don't mind- Uh, I mean... What are you blathering about now, Potter?" Harry grinned again at the attempt towards his normal aristocratic sneer.

"I think I was blathering about how I would stop by your room later tonight, if you want."

Harry waited while he watched Malfoy think about it, doubt crossing his face more than once.

"You can say no. Even no to just full sex. I could make you feel really good." Harry whispered against his lips.

Malfoy shivered in his arms before nodding slightly.

"Doesn't mean anything, Potter. I still hate you."

"Aww, you say the sweetest things! I hate you too. See you around midnight."

"How will you get in? The statue won't let people from other houses through."

"Don't worry, I will." Harry winked and walked out the door with a wave.

Getting in was more than easy, a statue of a snake responded just as well to Parseltongue as a live snake did and was happy to let him through the door after a few minutes of conversation.

It ever would have worked years ago, the entrance had just been a stretch of blank stone wall then, but several lost first years, two of which had spent a night asleep in a random corridor, had necessitated the identification of the entrance with a statue.

The common room was empty as Harry stepped inside and whispered a Point-Me charm to his wand. A corridor to one side led to two rows of doors and his wad pointed one out on the left.

Harry twitched his cloak closer around him as he stepped forward and slipped inside the room.

He was almost knocked over as his cloak was ripped away and lips landed on his own.

He chuckled as Malfoy broke away from the kiss and stood panting, looking at him.

"Eager?" he smiled as he picked his cloak up and dropped it on a chair. "Single room, that's handy."

He cast a few privacy and silencing charms on the room before he stepped back towards Malfoy.

"Head Boy." Malfoy pointed out, "That's an invisibility cloak."

"Yeah, was my dad's."

"Now I know how you get away with everything." Malfoy smirked wryly.

"Yep, you and Dumbledore who gave it to me." Harry smirked back at Malfoy's look of outrage, "And I know that you're wearing too many clothes."

Malfoy hesitated for a long moment and Harry pointed out, "You can say no at any point. I promise to stop, I am a Gryffindor."

"Yeah, who's been acting more like a Slytherin than me." Malfoy snorted but sat on the bed and gestured an invitation.

Harry grinned and toed off his shoes, while pulling his t-shirt off before moving to the bed. He gently pushed on Malfoy's shoulders and lay him down as he climbed between his legs and pressed the length of his body against the blond's.

He ran his hands up Malfoy's chest as he kissed him, feeling the lips under his own part almost instantly he ran his hands back down the chest and wash board abs before slowly undoing the buttons he found.

After the first three he slithered down the bed to kiss, lick and suck at the skin he revealed, slowly working his way back up. He paused to tongue at each nipple and nipped them gently with his teeth as Malfoy groaned and his hips thrust slightly, seeking friction.

"Mmm, please..." Harry hid his smirk of satisfaction at how prettily Malfoy had begged before he had even started and kissed up the column of his throat, biting down harder at the junction of neck and shoulder.

"Ahh, Harry..." he suckled on an ear lobe and felt another thrust in return along with a groan.

He kissed him lazily on the mouth, tongues twining and exploring each other mouths before he worked his way back down the body he had just been learning by taste. The sight of Malfoy was amazing, his skin was flushed with arousal, his dusky pink nipples were hard little buds and his trousers were tented, a damp spot slowly darkening the material. Soft, marble white skin begged to be touched and Harry was in no mood to refuse.

He loosened the belt around Malfoy's waist as he dipped his tongue into his navel and swirled it around, causing a half moan half giggle to escape Malfoy as he tried to wriggle away and closer at the same time.

He pulled the belt free from it's loops and dropped it thoughtlessly over the side of the bed. He grazed his fingers down the long lines of Malfoy's legs and quickly removed his shoes and socks. His hands moved higher to play with both nipples as he undid the blonds trousers with his teeth and waggled his eyebrows playfully, causing Malfoy to giggle before he scowled at the undignified sound.

Harry just chuckled as his hands moved back to pull his trousers from him. He chuckled again as he saw green silk boxers.

"I should have guessed that the Slytherin Prince wears silk underwear."

"It feels good." Malfoy groaned as Harry lapped at the head of his cock through his boxers. He breathed out softly as he did, letting the warm air play over him and cause more ripples of pleasure.

His hands gripped Malfoy's hips when he thrust up uncontrollably.

"S-sorry, I didn'-" Malfoy tried to gasp.

"Nothing to be sorry for, I wouldn't be half as happy if you lay there like a board." Harry grinned as his hands moved to pull down Malfoy's boxers as well.

"Wa-wait! You're not... you know, naked." Harry smiled softly at the blush that covered Malfoy's cheeks.

"I know, thought you might be more comfortable that way."

"Oh, y-yeah. I just..." Malfoy turned his eyes away as he stammered slightly.

"Hmm," Harry hummed as he licked a stripe up the length of Malfoy's cock, "plenty of time to get me naked later, if you want."

"O-oh, right, I- ooh, more..."

Harry grinned as Malfoy lost track of his thought process and sucked gently on the head of his cock, running his tongue around the slightly loose folds of his foreskin. He eagerly lapped up the drops of pre-cum that leaked out before suddenly dropping down and swallowing him whole.

Malfoy's hips jerked and his entire body twitched as Harry swallowed around him. He trailed on hand up a leg to fondle his balls as he pulled back from his cock, swirling his tongue and probing at the slit in the head.

His fingers moved slightly further back, pressing against his perineum as his eyes focused on the young man he was pleasuring. He didn't want to move too fast and startle Malfoy.

Malfoy though, was lost in a haze of lust and pleasure from the looks of it and apart from another jerk of his hips and a pulse in his cock, didn't react, just moaned louder.

Harry pressed his own throbbing erection into the bed in an attempt to relieve some of the pressure there. His fingers slowly slid further back and circled the small pucker he found, his other hand moving to work the shaft of the cock he was sucking as he focused on the head again.

The mixture of suction, swirling tongue, pumping hand and the new sensation of having his most private and intimate area touched made Malfoy orgasm instantly. Harry's mouth sucked further down the shaft as he caught the spurts of thick, slightly bitter cum on his tongue and slipped the tip of his index finger inside the fluttering hole he was playing with.

Malfoy moaned loudly and his hips thrust wildly as Harry swallowed each drop that filled his mouth.

He pulled back and placed a kiss to a his hip as Malfoy suddenly relaxed boneless. He licked his lips for any of the precious fluid he may have missed as he moved back up the bed and kissed his lover.

Malfoy pulled back for a moment before returning the kiss hesitantly, unsure if he wanted to taste himself but willing to try it once.

Apparently he didn't mind the taste too much as he lazily kissed back for several moments.

"You, um, didn't... do you want... me to..." Harry smiled as he pecked another kiss to Malfoy's lips before flopping over onto his back.

"That's okay, I can wait for round two."

"Round two? Do you mean, um, I'm not sure..."

"That's okay too." Harry Harry waggled his eyebrows again, "Plenty more fun to be had."

**tbc...**

**Feed the muse with a review to earn a shiny new chapter...**

**P.S. This is the second to last chapter *smiles through tears***

**Upside - I'm planning to write Draco's version and a sequel! Downside is that I haven't written them yet. I'm starting though!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Best Served Cold by Duana**

Chapter Five

The next was spent in a pleasant buzz for Harry, just like it always was when he got off the night before.

This was even better though as he shared two classes with Malfoy and his new lover blushed in the most adorable way whenever he met Harry's eyes.

It was at the start of dinner that night that he crossed the Great Hall and held a quick whispered conversation.

"Are we secret or can we go public?"

"The Dark Lord will kill me if he finds out!" Malfoy had blanched.

"No, he won't. Trust me."

"But-"

"Any other reason you don't want to?"

"Well, no but The Dark Lord-"

"Will be fine. Just tell him at the next meeting." with that Harry had pulled him to his feet and placed the biggest kiss he could manage around his grin on Malfoy's lips.

The Great Hall had been noisily whispering about the two of them talking, all noise stopped as Harry's lips landed on Malfoy's and the waited for a reaction.

When Malfoy's only reaction was to moan slightly, wolf whistles sprang up from Neville and Luna. They were quickly joined by the few Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws Harry had dated. Girls started giggling madly and Harry could hear the odd word float across the Hall as he pulled back and rested his forehead against Malfoy's.

"Hot..."

"Sexy..."

"Oh My God!"

"Wow!"

Harry calmly took a seat next to Malfoy at the somewhat empty Slytherin table and whispered to him, "You're mine now."

he watched as Malfoy's lips twitched as he suppressed a smile and his blush deepened, but he raised an unimpressed eyebrow and drawled, "Am I now? I'll have you know I am not a piece of property, Potter."

Harry just grinned and pecked him on the cheek before filling his plate.

"Potter!" Harry heard a whine from further down the table, "You're a Gryffindor! Stop polluting our table."

Harry didn't reply, just pulled out a piece of parchment and scribbled a note. He cast a couple of charms on it, which sent it flying down the table to the boy who had complained.

_You were there._

The boy turned wide, scared eyes to him and yelped as the note burst into flames.

A few of the other Slytherin's near the boy made noises of curiosity or complaint, but the boy just shushed them all with the words, "Potter is welcome at our table any time."

Malfoy frowned at him in question and Harry whispered in his ear, "I reminded him that we've met before."

Malfoy paled and darted a look at him.

"He's fine, I told you at the time." Harry grinned. That was the closest he had come to verbally acknowledging he remembered that night and it was as close as he ever would.

Harry could hear Ron screaming in disgust across the room to Hermione who was looking stunned. He met Ron's eyes and grinned widely with his best 'I'm sweet and innocent' look, Ron looked like he was going to self-combust at any second.

It just got better when he turned to the head table and started screaming at Dumbledore, who had lost the mad twinkle and promptly received detention for the rest of the year from Snape.

Life was good.

Harry snuck out again that night and targeted the three Death Eaters houses he had learnt of the night before, when Voldemort had called for him.

The last house was a real bonus. Not only did he find the Death Eater and his Marked wife but also Bellatrix Lestrange.

All three were stunned, the two he didn't really know were given the usual injection of air but Bella was taken with him. He wanted to play with her before she died.

The papers the next morning were all a twitter about the gruesome remains found of the notorious Death Eater and escaped convict, Bellatrix Lestrange.

They reported that the Auror's believed she was tortured for hours before being killed. Apparently there was a singly square inch of unmarked skin to be found.

Harry smiled in satisfaction as he read over the article.

"Your work?" Malfoy asked from beside him. He was sat at the Slytherin table again, it was more peaceful.

"I would like to say yes." Harry replied with a frown of frustration. It really would have been nice to trust someone enough to tell them.

Malfoy apparently took his reply to mean he hadn't done it and spent a few minutes talking about how he had never like his Aunt, she had always been too fond of casting the Cruciatus on him.

"Never again." Harry promised and pressed a kiss into his hair.

The next few weeks had flown by, filled with school work, seeing Malfoy, visiting with Voldemort and killing Death Eaters, it seemed like he never had a moment to just sit still and think any more.

Which was why he had snuck out and to his tree in the forest next to the lake.

His mind skipped lazily from one topic to another. He had already been here a while and all his hard thinking had been done.

He planned on taking out Voldemort that night. The last known Death Eater, bar the Malfoy's who were safe for Draco's sake, had died the night before, he hadn't been to visit for the last few days but he knew Voldemort was furious, confused and more than a little scared. Not that he would ever admit to such a thing.

Harry had spent a long week taking out the Death Eaters. He had found more of them than he had ever expected, so he had spent long hours each night breaking into dozens of homes and killing them.

Some had set up booby traps for him, they failed miserably. Voldemort had been waiting in one house, Harry had easily spotted him though and left. He returned the next night and killed that Death Eater.

The Daily Prophet was calling him Potter's Revenge, for the lightening bolt brand, even though he hadn't been even suspected of being the perpetrator. He was quite careful to keep up his innocent Gryffindor persona, even now he was officially dating Malfoy, and everyone was more than content to believe it.

Dumbledore didn't have cause to suspect him because of his alternate route out of the castle.

The Ministry had issued a warrant for the arrest of 'the dastardly villain' on grounds of treason. Harry didn't think it was his fault that so many Death Eaters had been Ministry officials, he certainly hadn't targeted them just because they worked there.

Their arrogance was quite amusing, as was the way they tried to cover up the fact that they all bore the Dark Mark.

Malfoy was a constant delight to Harry. They still fought like cats and dogs but there was a different undercurrent to them now. Most fights were followed by make up sex and copious amounts of cuddling. Harry was very happy.

Malfoy hadn't been quite as happy when he had seen Harry walk through the doors during a Death Eater meeting.

Harry had walked in with his usual act of arrogance and flopped into the chair that was waiting for him with a cheerful greeting. His face had swept over those gathered and his mouth dropped open as he saw Malfoy stood staring at him with just as much shock. He hadn't known that he would be there that night.

Harry had jumped up with a cheeky smile, turned and flamboyantly bowed to Voldemort with a wide sweep of his arm.

"My dear Lord Voldemort, has the young Mr Malfoy had chance to speak with you yet?"

"No Lord Potter," Harry had grinned at the gasp he heard from Malfoy behind him, "he has not."

"In which case, may I inform you of our new relationship."

Voldemort's looked of mild disgust as he worked out what Harry meant was more than a little amusing to Harry. Voldemort could happily torture and kill but the thought of a homosexual relationship made him queasy.

Malfoy had jumped down his throat later that night after they left the manor together. He didn't like the fact that Harry hadn't told him he was 'fraternising' with The Dark Lord.

Harry had easily distracted him after a few minutes of ranting by pinning him to the castle gates and ravishing his mouth.

"I told you to trust me, it would be fine." Harry had grinned as he unbuttoned Malfoy's trousers.

A quick blowjob later and he had returned to the castle by way of the Honeydukes tunnel and Malfoy up the drive, the way he had left.

Malfoy had ranted at him a bit more the next night, "Lord Potter, indeed!" but got over his shock at the surprise quicker than Harry had expected.

He had still been attending the occasional Order meeting but there wasn't much that ever happened at them. Nor did they seem to have any sources of information apart from Snape.

The most he ever learnt was about the few attacks they had interrupted or the even fewer Snape was able to warn them about, which he already knew about.

Voldemort had tried quizzing him about what he knew in relation to the Order, Harry had easily maintained his lack of knowledge and that Dumbledore was too busy trying to keep him in the dark to protect his childhood.

Voldemort found that amusing in itself. Harry was their best weapon in the war, with just his training alone he was as skilled as most higher ranked Auror's, and that was without taking the prophecy into consideration, not that Voldemort knew the whole thing.

He sat in his tree and let the memories play over for him as he waited for full night to fall. Before he knew it it was time to leave.

He walked out through the front gates for a change, there wasn't any need to hide his movements that night.

"You! It must be you! How did you manage it?" Voldemort had screamed at him as he walked into Voldemort's audience room.

"You made it so easy!" Harry laughed as he levelled his wand at Voldemort. "You let me have free reign to wander around, to learn all about your precious little Corpse Munchers."

"How dare you! I am Lord Voldemort! I will-"

"Yeah, yeah. Pain, death, kill, kill, kill. Don't you get bored of repeating yourself?" Harry laughed as he dodged the first of Voldemort's attacks.

He responded with a curse of his own. Spells flew quickly from both wands and the floor around their feet quickly heated and burned from the spell damage.

Harry could feel perspiration running down his forehead as he jumped aside to avoid an Avada Kedavra, a slicing hex caught his side as he dodged and he fell to his knees as he avoided the next curse.

"You've don it now, Tommy boy!" Harry called as his blood spilt to the floor.

Runes on the floor sparked into life as his blood activated them.

He launched himself to crouch on one as he felt anti-apparation wards and anti-portkey wards flare into being.

The rune he was on created a glowing golden dome around him and he watched Voldemort try to break through the wards and escape, unknowing of what was about to happen but guessing it was something that wasn't good for him.

"Did you think I sat playing with Wormtail's blood for fun?" Harry laughed manically. "I had hoped not no need the runes but..." Harry shrugged as Voldemort fired curse after curse at him, "beggars can't be choosers."

The last rune glowed and started a chain of explosions to erupt through the house. Fiendfyre flared into existence around the room and quickly spread, trapping Voldemort and Harry in his golden shield. The cursed fire couldn't get through the shield but the heat was and Harry swore and cast cooling charms as fast as he could.

Voldemort's scream as he was engulfed made Harry ears hurt, his body disintegrated instantly but the wailing scream lingered for long moments after.

The blood runes stopped the fire from spreading further than the house and Harry only had to wait minutes for the hose to be burnt to ash, his shield saving him from the ceiling as it collapsed around him.

He could see the Order of the Phoenix surrounding the house, most likely alerted by Snape.

As the last of the fire died out, Harry cast more cooling charms, this time at the floor so he could leave the rune shield which died as he left it's protection. Harry crouched down again as he stepped forward and drew a rune with the blood dripping from his side.

The last rune glowed as it erased his previous runes which hadn't been touched by the Fiendfyre, before it too disappeared.

Dumbledore stood looking at him, mouth agape, his expression mirrored by the others watching.

"It's over. He's gone." his knees suddenly gave out beneath him and he crumpled to the floor as his magical drain caught up with him.

Snape darted forward, everyone else still too shocked to move, and helped him to stand.

He looked back at the ruined patch of ground.

He had planned it all but it was hard to believe. He had been living under the shadow of the insane Voldemort from the moment of his birth, before that even, the moment Voldemort had learnt of the prophecy. Now he was gone and Harry was freed of that burden.

There was still loads of work to be done to restore order to the wizarding world and he had a relationship with his ex-rival to cement. He didn't know if he would ever be able to tell anybody about the truth of just how much he had done... but he like to think that he would be able to tell Malfoy one day.

He needed to deal with Dumbledore, his ex-friends and their betrayal.

Most of the Ministry was dead and people would be celebrating for weeks to come.

For now though, he could rest.

Voldemort was gone, as were those who had attacked and nearly killed him. He could stop fighting and killing, if only until the next Dark Lord that arose because there would always be another.

But for now... Life was good.

**End**

**That it then, my first multi-chaptered finished story.**

**Even (or especially) if you haven't left a review for any of the other chapters, please leave one now. It's the only reward we authors get for posting these stories for you to read.**

**Thanks for reading to the end,**

**Duana xxx**

**P.S. I have finished re-writing this from Draco's perspective - The Chill of Retribution - and will start posting straight away, I've also done the first chapter of the sequel for Best Served Cold - Bitter Counterinsurgency.**

P.P.S. I'm kind of stuck on the sequel. I know where it's going and what's going to happen in general but I could use some ideas about what someone who was out to get Harry might do to bring him down. It could be political manoeuvring, attacks on him or people he cares for, trying to take his money or inheritance somehow... anything you can think of or might like to see.

Any help would be appreciated. I've read far too many similar fics recently and I can't think of anything original :'(

D x


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